Griezmann happy with role in Nigeria’s defeat

France winger Antoine Griezmann believes the Super Eagles would have laughed last had the team maintained their tempo from start to finish in the round of 16 tie against France on Monday.

Griezmann, who was introduced by France coach Didier Deschamps just after the hour mark in Brasilia, confessed that the Eagles were not easy to penetrate in the first half, adding that things appeared a bit easy for him because his teammates had weakened the Eagles before he came in. The Real Sociedad attacking midfielder, who added the much needed “mobility and pace” to lift France, is hoping that the team will sing more victory songs.

“I’m happy with my performance. You could see in the first half that it was difficult to get behind them but it was better after the break.

“When I came on, I made runs in behind the defence. The rest of the team had worn their defence down well before I came on,” he enthused. Griezmann played a key role in his team’s second goal, putting the pressure on Nigeria captain Joseph Yobo, who conceded an own goal.

Deschamps hailed Griezmann’s impact as well but brushed off comments that he should have started the Spain-based winger instead of Giroud.

Griezmann started France’s first and third group games versus Honduras and Ecuador, while Giroud started the second against Switzerland and the clash with Nigeria at the Estadio Nacional de Brasilia.

“I could have gone with that option from the start and maybe it would have worked and maybe it wouldn’t,” Deschamps said.

“Instead, I decided to have a target man in the middle, with Olivier Giroud fighting for balls in the air against their defence. Antoine has other qualities, obviously – lots of mobility and pace.”

Deschamps added: “It’s the game I was expecting against Nigeria, who have a real physical presence.

“We had to be able to meet that challenge for the first hour, then in the last half an hour make more use of our pace and dynamism.

“We took advantage of the fact that the four Nigerian forwards defended a little less in the last 20 minutes,” he submitted.

France will face Germany in the quarter-finals on Friday at the Maracana.